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Comment by wmf | Hacker News Reader

Orin was pretty expensive at $2,000; now Thor is significantly more.

And now everyone's $2000 Orins will be stuck forever on Ubuntu 24.04 just like the Xaviers were abandoned on 20.04 and the TX1/2 on 18.04.

Nothing like explaining to your ML engineers that they can only use Python 3.6 on an EOL operating system because you deployed a bunch of hardware shortly before the vendor released a new shiny thing and abruptly lost interest in supporting everything that came before.

And yes, TX2 was launched in 2017, but Nvidia continued shipping them until the end of 2024, so it's absurd they never got updated software: https://forums.developer.nvidia.com/t/jetson-tx2-lifecycle-e...

Same experience here, plus serial port drivers that don't work, bootloader bugs causing bricked machines in the field. This on a platform nearly a decade old! The hardware is great but the software quality is abysmal, when compared to other industrial SoC manufacturers.

I think what's most galling about it is that Nvidia gets away with behaving like this because even a decade later they're still basically the only game in town if you want a low power embedded GPU solution for edge AI stuff.

AMD has managed to blunder multiple opportunities to launch something into this space and earn the trust of developers. And no, NUC form factor APU machines are not the answer— both for power/heat concerns and the software integration story being an incomplete patchwork.

Ahhhh I see there's someone else who has experienced the serial port driver bugs :). I was responsible for helping them figure out and fix the one related to DMA buffers but still encounter the "sometimes it just stops sending data" one often enough.

> And now everyone's $2000 Orins will be stuck forever on Ubuntu 24.04

Wasn't it supposed to run different systems? Unlike older NV hardware.

If you want access to the GPU I’m pretty sure you need to run Nvidia’s kernel.

128 GB for $3,499 doesn't sound bad at all.

You can get the same memory (including approximately the same bandwidth) in a Strix Halo system at half this price.

Therefore it sounds quite bad. Like Orin before it, Thor is severely overpriced.

It is worthwhile only for those who absolutely need some of its features that are not available elsewhere, like automotive certification or no need of additional boards when interfacing with a great number of video cameras.

Thor is a pretty big jump in power and the current prices are a bargain compared to what else is out there if you need the capabilities. I wish there was a competitive alternative, because Nvidia is horrible to work with.

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